


New Horizons

by godtier1



Category: The Mandalorian (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Fluff, M/M, Teeny bit of angst, the animal crossing au no one asked for
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-03
Updated: 2021-03-03
Packaged: 2021-03-16 19:46:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,666
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29829978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/godtier1/pseuds/godtier1
Summary: When Grogu was invited to an Animal Crossing party for school, Din had thought it was cute, even if he didn’t totally understand the appeal. He did not, however, intend to meet a special someone through the game. And he DEFINITELY hadn’t intended to fall in love.
Relationships: Din Djarin/Cobb Vanth
Comments: 16
Kudos: 79





	New Horizons

When Din was told that his son would be attending an Animal Crossing party for school, he was equal parts confused and curious. He knew what Animal Crossing was, of course, how could he not? Grogu had only begged him for this game that, “all of my friends are playing dad!” Din watched him play every now and then. He didn’t really get what the fuss was about, but if it made Grogu happy, who was he to judge?

Grogu’s school was currently all on-line, due to the pandemic, and he hadn’t seen any of his friends in months. One of his teachers, Mr. Vanth, had seemed to pick up on his student’s low morale, and decided to let his students run wild together on his island in the game. It was really quite sweet.

On Friday night, Grogu had bounced around the apartment happily, anticipating his turn to travel to his teacher’s island while Din made dinner. 

“Dad, what should I wear?” Grogu exclaimed, waving his Nintendo Switch in Din’s face. The image on the screen displayed his character, complete with green spikey hair, (“because you won’t let me dye my hair dad!”) and a number of clothing options. 

“I don’t think it matters too much buddy. You can wear whatever you want.”

A half hour later, it was Grogu’s turn to join the party. Din helped him hook up his Switch to the television so he could play on a larger screen, and watched curiously as he finished dinner.

Grogu’s character was boarding an airplane, and then walking onto a very different island than his own. When Din had watched Grogu play, he had noticed his island was rather sparse, with some cool pieces of furniture here and there, and his character seemed to live in a tent. His teacher’s island, however, was decorated to the nines. There were colorful flowers everywhere, as well as tables lined with fake food and balloons, like a real party. 

Grogu squealed, directing his character to explore the island, and run around with his friends. 

“Look dad! That’s Winta!” He shouted, pointing to another character on the screen.

“Yes, I see that!” Din replied.

Grogu and his friends ran around for a half hour, pulling party poppers and hitting each other with bug catching nets. Din smiled. This was a good idea. Grogu had missed seeing his friends. This was probably the closest he’d gotten to a proper play date in a long time.

Plus, no real life clean-up. It was a win-win.

Din couldn’t help but be curious as to which character belonged to Grogu’s teacher. They all looked pretty much the same to him. He had never met the man personally, but Grogu seemed to like him. And he had gone out of his way to connect with his students. What wasn’t to like?

Sunday night rolled around, and Grogu was sitting upside down on the couch, switch held above his head as he played for the fifth hour straight. 

“Grogu, it’s time for bed,” Din said, hands on his hips. 

“Five more minutes,” Grogu replied, not even looking up from his screen. 

Din sighed. He had been expecting this. 

“Grogu, you have school tomorrow. You need to turn the game off.”

Grogu flopped on the floor dramatically. “But dad! There’s a meteor shower on my island tonight! If I don’t stay up I can’t wish on stars!”

Din thought for a moment, tapping his fingers on his chin. Then he said, “is it something I can do? You could show me?”

Grogu scrunched his face up in concentration, then said, “okay! I’ll teach you! You gotta push the button when you see a star! And then you gotta get as many as you can!”

Din nodded, accepting the game console from his son. “I think I can handle that.”

Din put Grogu to bed, then sat down on the couch with Grogu’s switch. He sighed. It wasn’t like he had anywhere to be tomorrow. He was laid off at the moment, his job essentially frozen until the pandemic ended. He was grateful that he had Grogu, but he would be lying if he had said he wasn’t the tiniest bit lonely. 

He familiarized himself with the controls of the game…. and then waited. He watched the inky black sky in the game, waiting for a shooting star to show up. God, this was boring. How this game managed to keep his precocious son’s attention, he would never know.

He sat there, lightly dozing off between stars, his finger on the A button, when a message flashed across the screen.

Mr. Vanth  
Kind of late 2 b up Grogu

Din froze. He didn’t realize you could send messages in the game. Shit, his teacher was going to think Grogu was still awake on a school night. He quickly googled how to send a message of his own. It turned out to be more difficult than it looked. Plus, there was a character limit, which meant Din had to be more cognizant of what he said. He felt like he had to speak like a caveman to get his message across.

GrOgU  
Hi this Grogu dad  
Getting stars 4 him

Din sighed. Then, a moment later, another message came through.

Mr. Vanth  
Aww, thats sweet  
Carry on :)

Din blanched. How had his teacher sent that message so quickly? He was clearly much more familiar with the game than Din was.

Din looked at his phone. It was almost midnight. He turned off the game, feeling slightly embarrassed at having been caught by his son’s teacher. He hoped he had gotten enough stars for Grogu.

A few days later, Grogu waved his Switch in his dad’s face when it was time for him to go to bed.

“There’s shooting stars again tonight! Can you get me more?”

“You still need more? I got you a ton the other night,” Din replied, raising an eyebrow. 

“Duh dad! I need lots of stars so I can make a spaceship!”

Well. Din couldn’t argue that with that logic. 

He found himself on the couch again, bored out of his mind as he watched for make-believe meteors. Grogu was lucky he loved him so much. 

And then a message was flashing across the screen again.

Mr. Vanth  
Mr Djarin i presume?

Din jumped, slightly startled. Right, messages. He could remember how to do that.

GrOgU  
U can call me Din

A pause, and then,

Mr. Vanth  
Nice 2 meet u!  
Im Cobb

Din chuckled. This was kind of fun. It reminded him of text messaging on ancient flip phones. It was also the closest thing he’d had to an adult conversation in months.

GrOgU  
Nice 2 meet u 2  
More stars 2night

Mr. Vanth  
I figured

Din suddenly realized he had never thanked this man for going out of his way to make Grogu and his classmates so happy last week. Mr. Vanth… no Cobb, was probably never properly thanked for his kindness. Lord knew he hadn’t been paid for it. 

GrOgU  
Thx 4 party last week  
Very cute :)  
Grogu was happy

Mr. Vanth  
Ur welcome :)  
Grogu is good kid

Din beamed. He knew his son was a good kid, but he never got tired of hearing it from his teachers. 

GrOgU  
He luvs ur class  
Says ur fav teacher

There was a pause, and Din thought the other man had logged off for the night. And then,

Mr. Vanth  
Aw im glad :)

Din smiled. Maybe he could see why Grogu liked this game so much after all. He was about to type a goodbye messages, when,

Mr. Vanth  
What u wish for?

Din raised an eyebrow, confused, before a second message popped up. 

Mr. Vanth  
4 shooting star

He laughed. It was just a game after all. But maybe, if Grogu was playing right now, he would make a wish on each star. What would he wish for? To see his friends again?

What would Din wish for, if he was taking this more seriously? He thought about it a moment. Maybe for a friend as well. He and Grogu had just moved to the area, right as the pandemic hit. He hadn’t had a chance to meet anyone before it was no longer safe to go out. And all of his other friends, from back home, were on a different time zone, so they didn’t often have time to talk. 

He realized just how lonely he was.

GrOgu  
World peace

Mr. Vanth  
lol!

The two of them chatted, late into the evening, in that distinctive way that was only possible when there was a character limit. They talked about Grogu, and the class that Cobb taught. Din learned that Cobb enjoyed country and pop music, coffee, and cheap cowboy romance novels. He also learned that he had been an engineer before he went back to school to get his teaching license. When Din asked why, Cobb had responded,

Mr. Vanth  
Kids may b assholes  
But  
Other engineers r worse

It was two in the morning before Din realized how late it was. It didn’t make any difference to him, since he could nap once he got Grogu set up on the computer for school. But Cobb had an eight am class to teach.

GrOgU  
Is late  
Dont u have school?

Mr. Vanth  
Yeah, should go  
Thx 4 talk!  
Good night! :)

GrOgU  
Good night Cobb

After that, Din began playing every night, once Grogu had gone to bed. He told himself it was to help his son with the game, by catching bugs and fish that only came out at night. Grogu certainly didn’t complain. 

But if Din had been honest with himself, it was for the opportunity to chat with Cobb. Maybe it was silly, but he had come to enjoy the other man’s presence, even if it was only through a screen.

A week later, Din logged on and immediately received a message from Cobb.

Mr. Vanth  
Meteors 2 night  
Come over?

Din felt his heart do a little flip. He had never visited the other man’s island before, outside of when he had seen Grogu do it. 

GrOgu  
Sure

He racked his brain to remember how Grogu had done this. 

Mr. Vanth  
Gates r open :)

A character alerted him that he would be arriving in “Mos Pelgo” momentarily as the game loaded. Din felt weirdly nervous. “It’s just a game,” he told himself. Except the man on the other end was very real, whether Din could see him or not. And as much as Din was trying to deny it, he was already smitten.

Cobb’s character met Din at the airport with a little wave. He was wearing a cowboy hat and boots with a gray beard. 

Mr. Vanth  
Hello Din :)

Din began typing a message. God, the pressure to type quickly was so much worse while Cobb’s character was right there, waiting patiently for Din’s reply.

GrOgU  
Ur not kidding about cowboy luv

A moment later Cobb’s character was laughing. How the hell did he do that?

Mr. Vanth  
Follow me :)

Din followed, through a lush forest filled with bamboo and waterfalls. They passed the tailor shop, the town square, and the residential district. Cobb led him to the furthest edge of the island, to a cliff overlooking the sea. It was lined with little garden lamps, and there were two telescopes looking out over the ocean.

Din was suddenly overwhelmed with how much he missed doing stuff like this, how much he missed getting out of the house, how much he missed people. And, strangely enough, he felt like he missed Cobb, even though they had never met outside of the game. He wished he and Cobb could do something like this for real. Wished they could talk, face to face. 

Mr. Vanth  
Ur missing stars  
Press A  
make a wish :)

So they watched the stars, side by side, chatting in between meteors. 

And Din decided, maybe this game wasn’t such a bad alternative to real life. At least for right now.

A month passed, and then two. Ten pm was becoming one of Din’s favorite times of day. The house was quiet, and he could chat with Cobb for hours. Sometimes they would go to each other’s islands, stand besides each other, and just chat. Other times they would catch bugs and fish, or swim in the ocean. 

He considered the man a friend now. A very good friend at that. But, he wanted more. He wanted to talk on something that didn’t have a character limit. He wanted to hear his voice. Hell, he even just wanted to know what the man looked like!

But he couldn’t bring himself to ask for any of these things. Was too afraid to even give him his number. So they continued on this way. 

Until parent/teacher conferences.

Din had forgotten these were a thing, until he and Grogu were eating dinner one night.

“Dad, Mr. Vanth wants to talk to you,” Grogu said, mouth full of casserole.

Din froze. He lowered his fork slowly. “Why is that? Are you in trouble?”

“Noooo! It’s conference time!”

“You mean… parent/teacher conference?”

“Yeah! That’s what I said!”

Din’s heart was practically hammering out of his chest. He was going to talk to Cobb. Like an adult. Finally. This was the excuse he had been looking for.

But, this chat was going to be about Grogu wasn’t it? Would they even have time to talk about anything else? Would they have time to acknowledge this thing they had going on? Whatever that meant?

The evening of the parent/teacher conference came, and Din was alight with nerves. While Grogu was playing his Switch in the other room, Din paced back and forth in his bedroom, trying to decide what to wear. Should he wear something dressed up? Or would that look like he was trying too hard? What was the appropriate amount of thought to put into this outfit?

Din was startled out of his thoughts when Grogu peeked his head in the doorway.

“Daaaaad, you have to talk to Mr. Vanth.”

Din checked the time on his phone. Dammit, he was late! He threw on the first clean thing he could find and rushed out to grab his laptop.

When he was situated at his desk, Grogu preoccupied in the other room, he took a deep breath and jumped onto the video call. 

And there was Cobb. Looking both the same and completely different than Din had expected him to look. He had a slim, angular face, with a mole under one eye and a faint scar on the opposite temple. He had gray hair that was cut into a fade, as well as an impeccable mustache and beard. He was wearing reading glasses that covered the most striking hazel eyes Din had ever seen. But most importantly of all, he was smiling, the most tender and friendly expression lightning up his features. 

“Good evening,” he said, hands clasped in front of him. “Is it alright if I call you Din?”

“Uh, yeah, sure,” Din stuttered out, clearing his throat. 

“Excellent! Now, I’d like to go over some of Grogu’s recent test scores with you…”

Cobb was all business from that point on. Din would be lying if he had said he wasn’t disappointed. Watching Cobb talk, as Grogu’s teacher, but not as his friend, had felt slightly heartbreaking. Were they even friends to begin with? Or had Din been a convenient way for the man to kill some time?

And then Din felt painfully guilty. This meeting was about Grogu. The game had been for Grogu too. He had let his own stupid feelings get in the way, and now he was pining over his son’s teacher for God’s sake! He made a decision right then and there that he would stop playing the game. Would stop talking with Cobb. Would go back to the way things had been before. He had been lonely, sure, but at least he had Grogu.

“...all in all, Grogu is really excelling in all of his classes, especially science. He’s a great student, and his peers all adore him. You should be very proud!”

“Thanks….” Din said, trying not to sound like a kicked puppy. 

“Well, that concludes the conference. Is there anything else you’d like to talk about?”

Cobb looked at Din expectantly, as if he were hoping Din had more to say. What was he supposed to do, say, “hey, our meeting was kinda unconventional but I really like you, do you wanna exchange numbers?”

Din sighed, running a hand through his shaggy hair. He shook his head. 

“No, I think that pretty much sums it up. I’m glad Grogu is doing so well.”

Cobb’s smile faltered. He looked… disappointed?

“Ah, I see. Well, take care, Din.”

The evening hours of the next two weeks filled Din with dread. He would retreat to the living room after tucking Grogu into bed, and sit on the couch with a sigh. Grogu’s Switch would catch the light from the nearby lamp, taunting him. It wouldn’t hurt to just… log on, would it? Just for a moment? But what if Cobb wasn’t there? What if he was avoiding Din after their awkward parent/teacher conference?”

So Din would scroll through his phone instead, or watch tv, until he felt too tired to keep his eyes open. 

A few weeks later, Grogu confronted his father about the recent lack of Animal Crossing in his life.

“Dad! You haven’t caught any new fish for me!” he said with a pout. “There’s one that only comes out at night that I need, and today is the last day! Can you try to get it for me tonight? Please please please!”

Din wasn’t sure what to say. While he didn’t really feel like spending his evening trying to catch one singular fish, or pine after Cobb, he couldn’t say no to Grogu.

So he found himself, once again, on the couch playing Animal Crossing at ten o’clock in the evening.

He decided that he was going to be all business. Get in, get the fish, and leave. And for the first hour, that was what he did. There were no messages, no distractions.

Until there was.

Mr. Vanth  
Hi Din

Din froze, his insides turning to ice. He wasn’t sure what to do in this situation.

Mr. Vanth  
I want 2 say sorry  
I was hoping we  
Could talk more  
After conference  
But u didn’t seem  
2 want 2  
Sorry if I made it  
Weird

Din felt his cheeks heat up. Cobb had wanted to talk to him more after all?

Mr. Vanth  
Wanted 2 give u  
My #  
Maybe I misread  
The situation  
Sorry

Din felt like he had been hit by a truck. He had been so stupid! 

Mr. Vanth  
I’ll leave u alone  
Take care

Din typed as fast as his fingers would allow. 

GrOgu  
Wait

Now what? What could he say? He had been given an opportunity, twice now, to deepen this relationship. He had fucked up the first one, and he sure as hell wasn’t going to fuck up again.

GrOgu  
U didnt misread the  
Situation  
I thought u werent  
Interested  
Sorry  
Can we start over?

Din held his breath. The next, and final, message from Cobb was just a series of numbers followed by a smiley face emoticon. It took Din a moment to realize that Cobb had just given him his phone number.

He quickly added Cobb as a contact and typed out his first, proper, text message.

“Hi Cobb. Sorry, I fucked up didn’t I? I didn’t mean to make you think I wasn’t interested. Because I am. Interested I mean.”

Fuck, he was bad with words.

A moment later Cobb was typing.

“No worries Din! :) I didn’t make myself clear either. Wow damn it’s nice to text with you properly.”

Din grinned, his face feeling like it was splitting in two. 

“I can’t believe we talked for months over that game. Are we crazy?”

Cobb was typing again.

“Maybe a little ;)”

There was a pause, Din not sure which direction to take the conversation, when he received another message.

“So, just so we’re on the same page this time. I really like you. A lot. I would love to get to know you better. Would you like to have dinner with me sometime?”

Din was about to type out an enthusiastic “yes!” when he realized there was a problem.

“I would, but it’s still quarantine. I guess we’ll have to wait til lockdown is over?”

Cobb was typing again.

“Well, that too, but I was thinking we could eat together over video chat sometime?”

Din was breathless with excitement. Just as he was about to respond, Cobb texted back.

“Unless you’d rather eat fake food together in the game instead ;)”

Din laughed, definitely too loudly for the late hour. 

“No, definitely not, lol”

The two of them texted, long into the early hours of the morning. And again the following afternoon. And the following evening. A week later, while Grogu was playing on the balcony, Din and Cobb ate a quick, quiet dinner together over video chat. Din didn’t feel ready to tell Grogu yet about any of this. In fact, the two had decided to not “officially” start dating until Grogu had finished Cobb’s class. It felt a little like when Din had been a teenager, sneaking out of the house to meet a date. But, he decided, it was worth the wait. 

Din didn’t play the game anymore after that, and Grogu lost interest soon after as well. But, he was thankful for it all the same. It had given Grogu a way to play with his friends. It had given Cobb a way to connect with his students. And, most importantly, it had given Din a reason to start falling in love.

New Horizons, indeed.

**Author's Note:**

> I’m godtier1 on tumblr! Come chat with me about Din x Cobb! (Or animal crossing for that matter!)


End file.
